Adriann
Chapter 7: Everything's Clear Now
~> As always only Adriann is mine, everything else never will be.
~>PG 13ish
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Logan stood in the doorway refusing to move at Adriann's request.
"Logan, please. Go wake up Max." Adriann repeated.
"No. She needs her rest." Logan said stubbornly. Adriann had had enough, she didn't need Logan's crap, and quite frankly she was sick of it.
"Damn it Logan. You wanted me to talk to her? So now I am. You want to know what's going on? You want to know if I'm a threat? You want to know why I'm so screwed up? Fine. Then go wake up Max!" She yelled. Shocked by her outburst, Logan quietly turned and walked to his room.
"We should probably go in there with Max. That way she won't have to move around that much." Adriann said unable to look Syl and Krit in the eye.
"Dre? Are you alright?" Krit asked confused. Both of the x5's were confused by Dre's vague answer earlier. At least they thought it was Dre.
"Not really, no. But I can't do anything about it, so. Go say 'Hi' to Max. I'll meet you in there in a minute okay?" Syl looked at her oddly, not really trusting her.
"I'm not going anywhere promise. I'm tired of running. I don't have it in me anymore. Don't worry I'll be right there." Adriann had to hold in a laugh.
{{Only a Manticore escapee would think like that - always running form something.}}
Nodding they stood to leave, but Syl hugged her sister tightly.
"I don't care what you say, you're my sister Dre. Only family would risk their butts and go back to Manticore. Thanks for getting Max out. Thank you." she said before ending the embrace.
"Thanks." Adriann said amazed at Syl's constant acceptance.
{{She was always like that, caring, supportive, very family oriented.}}
"Go see Maxie. Go." Adriann urged with a smile.
"It's good to see you again sis." Krit said following Syl out of the room. When they were out of sight Adriann let out a long shaky sigh forgetting Bling was still in there.
"Girl, what's going on with you? Are you okay? Really Dre. You're scaring me." Bling said turning her so she was forced to look at him.
"It's a long painful story Bling, and I want you to hear it. You deserve to as much as anyone else here." she answered sadly.
"You called me Dre." she said almost in a daze. It had never really registered when he had done it before.
"Is that okay?"
"Yeah, it's more than okay. Thank you." Her eyes glistened with tears, completely grateful for something Bling wasn't sure of.
{{No one has ever called me Dre who wasn't an x5. I don't know why that means so much to me, but it does.}}
"Come on girl. Let's get this over with huh?" Bling smiled.
{{Nice smile. It's so warm and sincere.}}
"Do I have to?" Adriann whined. Bling helped her out of bed, which was a good thing because her legs gave out on her momentarily.
"Whoa. I got ya." Bling said putting an arm around her waist for support and comfort.
{{God, no. Please not now. Just let me finish this. Please.}}
"Hey Bling?"
"Hmm?"
"After I'm done in there, will you meet me up on the roof?" she asked innocently.
"The roof? Why? It's pretty cold up there, especially.."
"Bling please. I need to talk to you." She cut in.
"Sure sweetie. Anything for you." he replied when they reached Logan's room. "Ready?"
"No." She answered honestly, she was scared to death.
"You'll be great. Everything will be fine."
Adriann looked at everyone gathered on the bed.
{{One big happy family.}}
Max was in Logan's arms leaning back on him as he leaned on the head board. Syl was sitting at Max's feet talking to her sister with Krit beside her.
{{They all look so happy. And I have to ruin it.}}
"I don' t know if I can do this Bling." She whispered. Bling leaned down to kiss Adriann's forehead causing a small smile to curl up the corners of her mouth.
"But you have to." Bling gently pushed Adriann in the room. Max looked up to see who had walked in with Bling and her jaw dropped.
"Dre? You're really here? I though I was dreaming. I thought I was dreaming." She said as tears formed in her eyes. "How? I thought you were.." Adriann cut of Max with a fierce hug.
"Shhh. I'll explain in a minute." she said as she rocked Max back and forth while she cried. It had been a rough few days for Max, and Adriann knew that this wasn't going to make it any easier.
Logan watched Adriann unsure if he should be happy that Max is reunited with another sibling or if he should still be upset that Adriann had lied to Max and himself. {{She never really lied}} he thought to himself. {{Max is happy, that's all that matters}}.
"I don't understand Dre. Zack said you.." Max pulled back to look at Adriann unable to finish her sentence. Adriann stood and walked over to Logan's dresser picking up a picture of Max and Cindy.
{{Cindy gave this to him after the attack. She would have given him a picture of Max and him if she had one. Unfortunately there was no such picture in existence.}}
"How much did Zack tell you?" she asked still looking at the photo.
"Just that you died in the field." Krit offered.
{{Might as well start from the beginning.}}
"You've heard of psychic links between twins right?"
"Yeah. But what's that got to do with anything?" Logan asked becoming irritated again, thinking that Adriann was avoiding the questions.
"She was Ben's twin." Max told him softly.
"Yeah. Well, we could have been the poster children for psychic connections. It started when we were babies. If something was wrong with one of us we both cried, we felt each others pain and so on. As we got older we could hear each other thoughts. We would talk all the time, like when we should have been sleeping, and during training..."a smile crept up to her lips.
"Remember when some of the nomlies got loose about a month before our break out?"
"Uh-huh. You told Lydecker about when we were outside. There was no way you could have known." Syl said thinking back. Adriann nodded.
"Me and Ben could see the whole event playing out in our heads like a movie. You remember how scared Ben was of the nomlies, I was just as scared. I could see his worst nightmares about those things. I was more scared of them than I was worried about my own safety."
"After I gave Lydecker the heads up he started watching me closely because he wanted to know how I knew about the break out. It took him about a month to figure out my secret. Now he knew I could 'see' things that were gonna happen, things that already had, and he knew I could get into people's heads. He saw me as a tool, a weapon. If he only knew how chaotic everything in my head was. The only constant in there was Ben." Adriann sighed thinking back to the days where no matter how bad things got she was never alone or scared as long as Ben was there.
"So Lydecker decided that I was going to begin special training. I told Ben everything the night my life changed forever. The night all of our lives changed forever." Adriann sat down in a chair in the corner to the left of the bed and leaned forward resting her elbows on her knees.
"Lydecker never knew about Ben's similar abilities. he would have if we didn't leave that night though. I made him promise to not turn himself in unless I was being hurt. I was little, still am, but I have always been tougher than I look."
"I remember the time you beat the crap out of Zack in training. He was so mad." Syl interjected laughing with her 'sibs'.
"Yeah, well I cheated." Adriann confessed with a devilish grin that faded fast.
"Then everything started to fly out of control when you had your seizure Maxie. When I saw them coming to drag you away just because of one little weakness I knew I had to get out before it was to late. And when Eva died protecting you, protecting her family, I saw what a joke the whole project was...."
"When we finally got out Zack, Ben and I were made into a team. Zack tripped on a branch as we ran by the barcode graveyard, thrown by the sight of Jack's grave. That split second that we had to stop was all the time that the guard needed to catch up and get Zack in his sights." Adriann put her tired and aching head into her hands.
"I could see how much you would all need Zack and how big of a pain in the ass he would be. Max I saw you beating Zack into submission so you could get to Logan, I saw him helping Tinga and her family when Manticore was after them." She paused so she could choose her words carefully.
"And I saw his love for his baby sister give him the strength to give you back your life Maxie."
Max whipped away the tears that had fallen when she was forced to remember who's heart she had. Logan's arms tightened around Max's waist as though he was trying to take all her sorrow into himself. It killed him to see her cry, he loved her too much.
"I couldn't let him die knowing how important a role he would be in your lives. Ignoring Zack's order to go and Ben's plea's for me to stay with him I ran to Zack pushing him out of the way taking the bullet meant for him. I still don't know what hurt more, the bullet tearing through my chest and out my back or Ben begging me not to leave him." Adriann cheeks were drenched with tears by now.
"'Dre! Dre no. Don't leave me. Please.' he begged" Ben's voice echoed in Adriann's head nearly drowning out her own thoughts.
"Ben was the last person I saw, and his voice boomed in my head even after I ordered him to go with Zack. I told him to tell me what it was like out there, so I would get better and meet him sooner. I told him I loved him one last time. The last thing I heard was 'I love you Dre.'" A sob escaped from Adriann's throat taking the last of her resolve with it. All of pain and sadness Adriann had kept inside all the years came out in her tears. She had never actually talked about it. Bling was soon by Adriann's side holding her as she cried. He gently smoothed Adriann's light hair trying to calm her down.
"Hey, Dre? It's alright. Everything's gonna be alright." he soothed. The other's watched feeling helpless, not knowing what to do or say. While they had all felt the pain of losing a sibling, none knew what it was like to lose a twin. When Adriann had finally regained some control she continued with her tale.
"So, Zack was right. I did die in the field. If only that was the end of the story. You see Lydecker felt that I was far to valuable a weapon to give up on. So using a new technique he somehow managed to transfer my memories into a new body. The body of the x7-981, other wise know as Adriann."
"What?" Syl asked stunned.
"I didn't know what was going on. I saw all of you and thought that you didn't make it out. But then when I saw Zack I realized that you were all too young. About three years to young. Lydecker came in and told me what was going on in his on way. He tired to save time by giving me my memories if training as an x5 so he could focus more on my 'special' abilities." she rolled her eyes.
"It worked too well fortunately for me. Not only did I remember training, but I remembered everything. I couldn't believe that I wasn't an x5, it was impossible. How could I be an x7 when I didn't remember anything from that life. All my memories were of our childhood. Then he showed me this." Adriann turned around and lifted up her hair to reveal her barcode.
"It's backwards." Max said softly.
"The ultimate slap in the face. It's still you but everything has changed forever."
"That's awful." Syl said as her hand rose to her barcode.
"Cruel bastards." Krit said disgusted.
"Do you remember how Lydecker always said that anything is possible if we believe it is.." Adriann began.
"But we can still be shot, drown, die." the three other's finished simultaneously.
"Right. Guess what? Lydecker was actually right about something for once. Everything and everyone around me said that I was an x7 but I knew in my heart that I was an x5. Because I couldn't believe that I was an x7 I began to age and grow rapidly. It still doesn't make a lot of sense to me, but I know it scared the hell out of Lydecker to see me growing so fast. It was great. I wish you could have seen his face."
"The other's alienated me because of my independence and confusion. It went completely against their hive mentality,and it scared them. Ben always tried to be nice to me in a way. He knew we were twins but the connection that I had with your Ben wasn't there, probably because he didn't have any mental abilities that were out of the ordinary. That pissed Lydecker off royally. But he was content knowing that my abilities were getting stronger everyday, stronger than they would have been as an x5."
"But the others that were my family in name only treated me like an outcast when I began to age. Even Ben abandoned me. It was almost like losing him again, but I knew that my Ben was out there somewhere and that I would get to him. I was completely and totally alone in that place and I needed out."
"I busted out when I looked about 12, but I was only 8, without them knowing. They finally figured it out after I had crossed the perimeter fence. I was home free because only three people in Manticore knew about me. I was a secret experiment, I had no real records. After I made it out, the rate that I aged increased again. I had developed to the age of 20-21 in a matter of 2 1/2 years, the age I would have been if I hadn't died." Adriann ran her hand through her hair trying to decide where to go next.
"I started looking for all of you right away. I had a lot of trouble at first because I had so much information flooding my head all the time I didn't know how to sort it all out. It was overwhelming...."Adriann's gaze moved to the window as she lost her focus.
{{Come on Dre. You can do this. Just stay focused. Oww. Damn it hurts so bad. It's been getitng worse lately. I'm running out of time. Ahh...God.}}
A slight moan was heard by Bling causing him to look up at Adriann. Her face was clouded and she looked determined to do something.
"You okay?" He whispered to Adriann from his seat on the arm of her chair, receiving only a nod in response.
"Once I had gained some control it was a little easier to find you. One at a time found you Zack was the first, and he led me to the rest. I never actually talked to any of you because I didn't know how to explain what had happened."
"You did fine Dre." Krit said hoping to comfort her. "Why didn't you just tell us?"
"Because it's taken me the past 8 years to figure it out. But I couldn't find Ben. I don't know why. I just couldn't find him, until it was too late."
"Dre." Max whispered wishing she would stop. She didn't want to hear about Ben after what they had been through.
"About four months ago I heard Ben calling me, waking me up from a deep sleep. I kept getting little flashes of him and what he was going through. I followed his voice hoping I could get to him in time."
"So you know what happened to him?" Max asked sadly.
"I know more than you do. When Ben saw me die he lost a huge part of himself and he didn't know how to handle it. And as you know for safety reasons you couldn't stay together. He felt alone just like I did. And then there was the whole heightened perception. You see, Ben couldn't handle what was going on in his head. He never had a moments peace and he couldn't stop it. He hated the lack of control and would do anything to regain it. The only reason that I could stand the constant noise and clutter in my head was because of Lydecker and his special training."
"If I had been there everything would have been okay. I would have taught Ben how to sort out everything as best I could and we would have been together. If I could have just let him know I was there. But, because I wasn't his real sister he couldn't hear me. I could hear him though. He would tell me what it was like to be free, he would tell me about people he met and how different they were from all of us." Adriann began to choke back more sobs.
"And he told me everyday how much he missed me and that he loved me."
"What I wouldn't give to have been able to reach him. Ben was losing his mind to the chaos surrounding his life. The only thing that he could do to get some form of control back was to kill himself without actually killing himself. That's why he tattooed all of his victims with his barcode because he was watching himself die hoping that his suffering would go with it." A single tear rolled down her cheek knowing more than she was saying, but she couldn't bear to actually say it. Because then it would be real, and Adriann hated reality when it came to Ben.
"Max, when you found him he was in a really bad state."
"I know. He was killing innocent people." Max said reminding Dre that Ben was a murderer.
"Because he couldn't kill himself. All these years Ben always held out hope that I was still alive. He knew I wasn't really dead because there was still something there, he just didn't know what. It was like I was trapped in a sound proof box. I was there but if you didn't see me you would never know it."
"I got to Ben right after you left Max. As much as he didn't want to die, he's was thankful that you helped him finally get some peace and quiet. I knew he was gone, but I had to tell him I was okay. That I still loved him no matter what he did. I would always love him. Forever. He was my best friend, my confidant, my brother." Adriann smiled through her tears. Bling put his arm around Adriann in a sideways hug.
"I refused to let Lydecker have him. So I took Ben's body to his favorite spot in the world. It was on the coast of California in this beautiful beach. That's where he always ran when he needed to be alone or when he was scared. That was his safe place. I buried him there, right by the rock formation he carved our names into. Our names. I stayed there for a while just so I could be with him and tell him everything that I never got a chance to. I was there when I dreamt about you guys and knew I had to come." Adriann leaned her head on Bling's chest exhausted from her emotional life and past.
{{I don't know if I have the strength to finish this. There is still so much left to do.}}
"Dre, my God, are you okay?" Syl asked her kneeling at her feet.
"I don't know. I need some fresh air." Adriann said standing up.
"Thanks for listening. Get some rest Maxie." She said kissing her on the forehead before walking out of the room leaving her 'family' to think over what they had just be told.
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"Hey Dre? You up here?" Bling called walking out the stair well onto the roof.
"Over here Bling." Adriann called from the ledge she was sitting on.
"Geeze, look at you. It's freezing out here, put this on." Bling handed her his sweater as he sat down beside her.
"Thanks." Adriann slowly pulled on the shirt wincing as she pulled it over her head.
"Bling what do you think happens after you die?"
"I think that all those who lived goods lives and trust in God go to heaven. A place of ever lasting peace. Why?" He said looking from the sky to Dre's face.
"I'm scared of silence Bling. I've never had one minute of silence and now I'm staring down the barrel of a gun that will bring eternal silence." she murmured.
"What's going on Dre? Are you okay?" Bling asked concerned. Adriann gasped in pain and slumped over on Bling. Catching her as she collapsed so she wouldn't fall off the roof Bling picked her up and carried her to the flat part of the roof where he leaned against a wall and held her. She continued to shake and cry in pain for the next few minutes so badly at times that he thought she was seizing.
"God Bling, I don't want this to happen. I don't want to leave now. I finally have friends and I have you to turn to now."
"Dre, what's going on? You are really scaring me. What's wrong honey?" Bling asked holding her close terrified for her.
"I'm dying Bling. And I'm scared."
~>How much do you love me? Hope you like, most questions are answered now but more is to come. I luv ya all! Remember to review.